Professionally Photographing Artwork

Jesse Corcoran, in the studio photographing large painting.

The brilliant Jesse Corcoran, photographer extraordinaire is here photographing my study of King of the Hill. Jesse photographed all the paintings, large drawings, plates and Nursery Rhyme Sculptures on my website. It makes such a big difference having artwork professionally photographed.

How to photograph a large painting to make a print from

King of the Hill is a large painting and to be able to create a quality print from the painting, I needed to adhere to the following guidelines*:

1. a camera that can shoot in 'raw' mode. Raw mode will get the most resolution from the camera.

2. take multiple photos of the painting and then 'stitch' together digitally to create a composite image for print. This not only gives you maximum resolution so that you can ensure the reproduction can be printed at a large size, but also ensures that the entire image is in focus, not just the centre (which is what happens when the artwork is captured in just one exposure).

3. note shooting images in sections can be further complicated, as you need to make sure every photo is taken under the same exact conditions (lighting and angle) for consistency.

There are print studios that can provide this service, but my painting was still wet and I couldn’t take it to my printers wet to be photographed. I was so glad Jesse was available to provide this service in my home studio.

* (Guidelines sourced from: Hound and Bone)